MEET YOUR MISSIONARY

Our annual missionary convention will take place this year from November 1-5.  We  have the very special privilege this year of having with us Oeuy Kes.  Oeuy is Cambodian.  He fled Cambodia during the Pol Pot genocide years, making his way first to Thailand.  It was in a Thai refugee camp that he gave his life to the Lord.  From Thailand he immigrated to the United States going first to Las Vegas.  During a missionary convention at his church he felt the call of God to return to Cambodia.  Obeying that call took him first to Nyack College and the Alliance Theological Seminary.  While studying at Nyack College he met his future wife Chanthan who also had fled Cambodia to Thailand, then had moved on to the US.  It was their mutual desire to return to Cambodia to share the gospel with those who had suffered perhaps the worst genocide ever to take place.

Oeuy and Chanthan have both said that their families couldn’t understand what they were doing.  Normally, the only reason a person would return to Cambodia after successfully immigrating to the US was to make a lot of money or to get into politics.  The desire of these two to “throw away” their lives by going back to share their faith was incomprehensible to their families and many of their friends.  That, however, is exactly what they did.  For the last fifteen years they have faithfully served God throughout Cambodia.  They even had to flee the country again in the late 1990s when a civil war broke out.  The Lord has preserved them through all of that and has used them in a very special way.  Because they are Cambodian by birth and educated in the US, they have been particularly useful in serving as intermediaries between the Cambodian church and the North American missionaries.  Counseling and advising both the missionaries and the church leaders, they have been invaluable in helping both groups to better understand and communicate with each other.

Oeuy and Chanthan have been particularly responsible for leadership development in the country.  In 1990 when the first missionaries returned to Cambodia after a twenty-five year absence there was only one church in the country.  Today there are 180 Khmer (Cambodian) churches and another twenty minority group churches.  Theirs has been that daunting task of finding and training leaders for the many churches that have been springing up.  They have crisscrossed the country teaching and counseling with the many new young leaders.  They have also been involved directly in youth ministries throughout the country.

As Oeuy comes he will be able to tell us of the tremendous tragedies that the country has experienced and how God has brought beauty from ashes.  He will relate the marvelous testimonies of former Khmer Rouge soldiers who were miraculously saved and who now are planting churches throughout the country.

If you have ever wondered if God still works as he did in the days of the apostles and the book of Acts, be sure to come and hear Oeuy speak.  The story of the Cambodian church is a modern day story of the book of Acts.  What God is doing will truly stir your heart. 

Oeuy will be speaking at our opening Missionary dinner on Wednesday evening November 1.  On Thursday morning he will speak to the Bridgton—Lake Region Rotary.  Thursday evening he will meet with our youth group.  Friday morning he will speak at the Ossipee Valley Christian School and Friday evening he speaks to the men at the annual steak dinner.  Saturday he speaks to the women.  Sunday morning at 10:30 we will have our missionary rally.  Our convention will close with an international potluck dinner at noon.

I can assure you that you will not want to miss attending these meetings.